Here in the United States, the company has partnered with Novant Health to deliver medical equipment and personal protective gear in North Carolina and, notably, with retail giant Walmart delivering health and wellness products. After what Rinaudo described as a challenging first year of operations in Rwanda in 2016, the company has since partnered with logistics company UPS in that East African country, the Toyota Group in Japan, and it’s started working with Nigeria’s Kaduna and Cross River States. And while the company iteratively improves its autonomous drone model, much of its successes over the past five years have been related to building out its logistics network. Rinaudo stressed that Zipline doesn’t think of itself as a drone company, but rather an instant logistics provider. And we’ve had to build every single one of those things completely from scratch.”
“Over time Zipline has had to basically rip every single thing out of the system, whether it was the flight computer or the battery pack, or the aircraft itself. Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo told TechCrunch that this was more by necessity than design, noting that when the company first started developing its drone tech, it quickly realized that off-the-shelf components weren’t reliable or didn’t integrate well. The company, which launched in 2014, is vertically integrated – meaning it designs and manufactures the unmanned drones, the logistics software, and the accompanying launch and landing system.
Zipline made a name for itself first in Rwanda and then in Ghana, where it delivered blood, vaccines, life-saving medications and other essential supplies using autonomous electric drones. This latest round has vaulted the company’s valuation to $2.75 billion and will fuel further expansion of its logistics networks in Africa and the United States. Drone delivery startup Zipline, a company that got its start delivering medical supplies across Africa, has raised $250 million in new funding.
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